Downside Up
Directed by Nancy Kelly, USA, 56 minutes
North Adams native Nancy Kelly’s grandparents and
parents once worked at Sprague Electric, the abandoned
factory that became MassMOCA, the nation’s
largest museum of contemporary art. Kelly’s intimate
portrait of the transformation of the town, as seen
through her family’s eyes, explores whether something
as ephemeral as contemporary art can breathe life into
a dying city. (www.downsideupthemovie.org)
***
Sweet Soil
Directed by Laura Meister and Erica Spizz, USA,17minutes
Western Mass filmmakers Laura Meister and Erica
Spizz tell the stories of four family farms, a natural
foods store committed to supporting them, and a community’s
passion for fresh local food.
***
One in 8: Janice’s Journey
Directed by Cindy McKeown, USA, 57minutes
Boston filmmaker Cindy McKeown takes a highly personal
and irreverent look at one woman’s fight against breast cancer.
McKeown follows Janice Fine, a lively, engaged, and at
times hilarious narrator, through her diagnosis, treatment,
and search for answers, including a look at environmental
links to breast cancer. (www.oneineight.net)
Official Selection, 2004 Women in the Director’s Chair, International
Film and Video Festival
***
DAM/AGE
Directed by Aradhana Seth, India, 50 minutes
Traces writer Arundhati Roy’s bold and controversial
campaign against the Narmada dam project in India,
which could displace up to a million people. In a clear,
accessible manner, and with vivid imagery, Seth weaves
together a plethora of issues at the heart of global
economics and politics today, from corporate greed,
to the urgent need for state accountability, to freedom of speech. (www.frif.com)
Women’s Achievement Award, 2003 One Media Awards
***
The Man Who Stole
My Mother’s Face
Directed by Cathy Henkel, Australia, 75 minutes
Henkel uses film to investigate the violent assault
on her mother by a local teenager in Johannesburg,
South Africa, fourteen years after the crime. The
search for justice, though belated, is ultimately
healing. (www.wmm.com)
Winner, Best Documentary Feature, Tribeca Film Festival
***
Ferry Tales
Directed by Katja Esson, USA, 40 minutes
Esson exposes the secret world that exists in the powder room
of the Staten Island Ferry. Sassy and honest, the denizens of the
lady’s room dish on everything
from sex scandals to
stilettos, family problems
to September 11th, leaving
stereotypes at the door.
(www.wmm.com)
Academy
Award Nominee for Best
Documentary Short
***
Paradise Lost
Directed by Ebtisam Mara’ana,
Israel, 56 minutes
In this thought-provoking and
intimate film diary, the director
looks back at the lost history of
her own Arab Israeli village, one
of few Arab villages remaining
after the 1948 war. Mara’ana’s
lyrical, emotionally charged tone
is strikingly honest, offering
valuable insight into the contradictions and complexities of modern womanhood
and national identity in the Middle East. (www.wmm.com)
Best Cinematography, DocAviv Documentary Film Festival
Best Documentary, DocAviv Documentary Film Festival
***
Still Doing It: The Intimate Lives
of Women Over 65
Directed by Deirdre Fishel, USA, 54 minutes
Partnered, single, lesbian, straight, black and white;
nine ordinary, extraordinary women, age 67–87,
express with startling honesty and humor how they
feel about themselves, sex, and love in later life, and reflect on the poignant
realities of aging. (www.stilldoingit.com)
***
La Cueca Sola
Directed by Marilu Mallet, Canada,
52 minutes
After the military coup in Chile of
September 11, 1973, thousands of men
were taken from their homes never to
return. In this film, Chilean-born filmmaker
Mallet reveals five women’s stories
of personal loss and political resistance,
including that of writer Isabel
Allende. Both tragic and uplifting, this is a moving testament to their strength and
dignity. (www.wmm.com)
***
Stay Until Tomorrow 
Written and Directed by Laura Colella, USA, 92 minutes
Funny and sexy, this is a feel-good movie for
the irreverent. Nina is restless. She’s tried acting
and college, but really just wants to travel and experience new things. This unpredictable comedy is a refreshingly real look at a young woman
seeking exotic and erotic possibilities. Note: some sexually explicit content.
(www.fliff.com)
***
Return to Kandahar
Directed by Paul Jay and Nelofer Pazira, Canada, 65 minutes
Journalist Pazira, star of the movie “Kandahar,” returns to postwar Afghanistan,
searching for her childhood friend whose story
inspired that film. Probing and impassioned,
Pazira unravels her past and Afghanistan’s turbulent
history, tracing the impact of Russian
occupation, the Northern Alliance, the Taliban
and the American’s “war on terror.”
(www.bullfrogfilms.com)
Best of the Festival, Columbus International Film and
Video Festival; Best Social/Political Documentary, The
Gemini Awards (Canadian Emmy); Best International
Documentary (Wine Country Film Festival and Bare
Bones International Film Festival)
***
Home of the Brave
Directed by Paola di Florio, USA, 75 minutes
Writer and director di Florio offers a personal and
political account of Viola Liuzzo, the only white
woman murdered in the American civil rights movement,
told through the eyes of her children. The film
seeks to unravel her mysterious death and its profound
impact on her family and on the movement, revealing
contemporary ramifications.
Premiered at 2004 Sundance Film Festival and winner of awards
at film festivals in Cleveland, Maine, Santa Barbara and Port
Townsend.
***
Nothing Like Dreaming
Directed by Norwich, Vermont filmmaker Nora Jacobson,
90 minutes
Set in rural Vermont against the backdrop of the state
capitol, where civil union laws are being debated along
with gun control and DWIs. Explores the fallout wrought
by a fortuitous encounter between a teenage girl and an
outsider artist, and their bond forged by fire. Together
they build a mysterious musical instrument, the Fire
Organ, that enchants, haunts and heals the listener. A
moving story with some stunning camera work.
***
For a Place Under the Heavens
Directed by Sabiha Sumar, Pakistan/France, 53 minutes
In a finely crafted personal film, Sumar offers an insightful
perspective on the growing religiosity of civil and
political life in her country. Sumar’s provocative questions
capture the tension between liberal and fundamentalist
forces shaping life in contemporary Pakistan.
***
Chisholm’72 – Unbought and Unbossed
Directed by Shola Lynch, USA, 76 minutes
An eye-opening and inspiring film about Shirley Chisholm,
the New York Congresswoman, and her 1972 run for the
presidency. Insisting her candidacy as an African-American
woman was not merely symbolic, Chisholm follows a
personal call and in the process puts the nation on notice that
the times, they were indeed a-changin’.
***
Watermarks
Directed by Yaron Zilberman, Israel, 90 minutes
Watermarks is the story of the champion women swimmers
of the legendary Jewish sports club, Hakoah Vienna.
The women, now in their eighties, are about to meet again
for the first time since they escaped the Nazis. Director
Zilberman has woven together newsreel footage, old photos,
and interviews with the women into a compelling tale
of beauty, brawn, survival, and the will to win.
Awards at the Jerusalem and Vienna film festivals.
***
Divan
Directed by Pearl Gluck, USA, 77 minutes
On the surface this is a tale about the filmmaker’s
search for a family heirloom—a “divan” or couch, that
family legend proclaims rebes slept on in the Old
Country. In the process of making her film, the filmmaker
builds bridges—a daughter’s bridge to her
father’s love, to a Jewish faith she had rejected, and to
her family’s heritage. Humorous and poignant. A find!
***
Roots of Change
Directed by Lisa Merton and Alan Dater, USA
A work-in-progress by the local filmmaking team that
brought us "Home to Tibet" and "Bridge of Fire" . Their latest project profiles the
passionate and persuasive Nobel Peace Prize winning activist, Wangari Maatthai,
whose self-assigned mission has been to plant trees throughout her native Kenya
and elsewhere in Africa, creating “Green Zones,” and transforming lives in the
process.
***
Wild Women Don’t Have The Blues
Calliope Films, USA, 58 minutes
In the 1920s a generation of great women blues performers—
Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, Ida Cox, Alberta Hunter,
Mamie Smith and others—launched a craze for the blues
that swept it into the American mainstream. With vintage
clips, some great old songs and a wealth of juicy anecdotes,
“Wild Women” brings their stories to life. As the Boston Globe put
it, “‘Wild Women’ is everything its title implies.”
***
The Watermelon Woman
Directed by Cheryl Dunye, USA, 85 minutes
With hip wit, a big heart, and a great soundtrack, Philadelphia
filmmaker Dunye, an African-American lesbian, tackles the serious subject of cultural
marginalization in this mock documentary, a search for the identity of a
black lesbian actress who was cited in 1930s film credits only as The Watermelon
Woman. The New York Times called it, “Funny, adventurous, wonderful!”Teddy Award,
Berlin International Film Festival. Vito Award, New York International Lesbian/Gay Film
Festival. Best Feature: France’s Créteil International Festival of Women’s Cinema
***
Chutney Popcorn
Directed by Nisha Ganatra, USA, 92 minutes
The first feature film by Ganatra, this is a
lesbian romantic comedy in which Indian
traditions come up against ’90s New York
City values. Subtly blending cultural satire
and social commentary, Chutney Popcorn is a humorous look at the meaning of
friendship, family, love and loyalty. (www.ChutneyPopcorn.com)
Best Feature Film Audience Award at the Madrid International Film Festival. Best of Festival
Award and Best Narrative Feature at the Ojai Film Festival. Best Feature Film, Public Award at
the Paris International Film Festival, and more!
***
Caterina in the Big City
Directed by Paolo Virzi, Italy 90 minutes
Thirteen year-old Caterina has moved with her family
from Tuscany to Rome. At her new school she finds herself in a tug-of-war
between social factions. The film has been called both a political satire and
poignant story of self-discovery. A box-office hit in Italy, this is a pre-USA release
sneak preview